Monday, December 6, 2010

Friday, November 5, 2010

In Peter Balakian’s memoir “Black Dog Of Fate” the antagonist Peter’s passion for his girlfriend conflicts directly with his love for his pasted away grandmother, which results in Peter forgetting how much his grandmother meant to him. This reveals that people can often forget what they care for most if that certain thing has been out of their lives for so long.

In the beginning of the novel the antagonist Peter spent so much time with his grandmother. Peter describes his grandmother as a queen. “Big Brown eyes”, “Black wool coat, high heels” Peter looked at his grandma as if she could stand up to anything and anyone. “My grandmother stood up to defend against the man”. “I felt overwhelmed by my grandmother’s courage”. This shows Peter was impress with his grandmother and proud of the things she did.

Later on in novel grandma Nafina dies on “November of 1964”. Peter “walked upstairs slammed the door, turned on the radio”, and began to reminisce about the times he and his grandmother had. This shows Peter had a care his grandmother, and suffered a great deal of pain when she passed away

At the end of the story “10 years later from his grandmother’s death”. Peter’s mother informs him that the family is having a hokee hankisd for the tenth anniversary of your grandmother’s death”. The conflict takes place when Peter states “I can’t come, im going to Cambridge to spend the weekend with April” This quote explain ten years later no matter how much love you had can tend to be forgotten.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

I don’t remember exactly but in my mom words I was two year of age when my mother and the man who claims he is my father split, they were never married, and the reason he left was to get marry someone else. When I was young I never knew the story behind it I seen this man about everythree months when he came down from Canada to visit his friends. I didn’t understand the situation why this man and mother never talked or why they were never together I was too young. As the years went on the visits from my father grew less and less, three moths turned into a year maybe two. As I grew older I became to understand the situation, the man who claimed was my father was a careless man who didn’t care for me or my mother. When I reached high school I began introducing my mother as Virgin Mary and me as baby Jesus. I was Referring to the biblical Mary who was impregnated by the spirit, and the Jesus who was born with the man above being his father. Everyone knew what I meant when I said that and they found it pretty funny and it is what I state when people ask me about that man till this day. My freshman year I decided to take up football I made the varsity team as freshman. When my junior year came around i made the varsity basketball team first year I tried out never play organized basketball in my life, never had a father to teach me but I guess I did a pretty good job on my own. One day my mother called my father wondering if he was going to ever call and ask how his offspring was doing (notice she didn’t use son because she knows I get upset) she rubbed it in his face on how I was a natural born varsity athlete. Of course now realizes I could be successful and tries to get back in my life, but I don’t answer his calls so he found me on www.facebook.com and added me as a friend. One time I posted a status about how good I did in my basketball game he left a comment “that’s my son”. I didn’t reply I didn’t know how to reply I was shocked this man had the mordacity to call me his son. I was upset my I didn’t say anything. The beginning of my senior year I was announced captain of the varsity basketball team. I posted a status on my facebook “Captain Francois”. This man again comments on my status “that’s my son”, this time I replied “I am not your son never was before I am not now” since then he has not communicated with me or my mother. am now a senior deciding on which college is right for me, and I know my mom is always there for me. She is the only parent I have that why she get gifts for mothers day and father days ever year.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

In "Plum Plum Pickers" Raymond Barrio suggests that happiness is needed in life, and money is not always the answer. Raymond Barrio uses word choice throughout the story to establish his points. His tone expresses sadness, loneliness, and empty feelings everything the opposite of happiness.

In the first paragraph Robert uses punctuation, and repetitions to express his tone. For example “trapped in an endless maze, of apricot trees, as though forever, neat rows of them, neatly planted, row after row”. Robert uses all those commas to slow down the story and make it sound depressing. Robert also uses comparisons to relate his text to other depressing things. For example in the first paragraph “like the blackest bars on the jail of hell”.

Throughout the whole story Robert Barrio uses allusion. For example the name and ethnic background he gave the narrator “Manuel”, a Mexican with a name that relates to things like manual labor or a manual car where u do things yourself. Robert named his narrator Manuel to show he was hard working and an independent person.

Robert also uses short paragraphs to make some points. For example “Lunch” was a whole paragraph very short compared to the long paragraphs about when he was working hard. Robert was trying to express how fast the time he was enjoying his lunch went by and how slow the time he was working felt.

I think the reason Robert Barrio picked to write about an ethnic male working on a farm picking fruit and a rude unreasonable boss was to get his readers to picture slavery. So his readers can picture depressing thoughts realize its not an happy story.

At the end of the story Robert show if you stand up for yourself sometimes you will achieve your goal. For example “I will take two cents from every bucket”. “Manuel lifted his foot and tipped over his own bucket”. Others joined and the boss decided to change his mind. This shows that if you stand up for yourself and sometimes have people follow , you can achieve many goals.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

In this photo graph "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" by the famous painter Pieter Bruegel who was known as the Elder or Peasant Bruegal 1525 – 9 September 1569 i see many unusual objects and people. Looks like a calm, quiet setting. Calm water full of rocks. I see a big beautiful sunset in a big beautiful blue sky behind what looks like a couple of ice bergs. i see old fashion boats with sails in the water. i see a slight bridge with a young female wearing many colors red green white and brown look like she is plowing her grass with something wooden that is lead by what looks like a horse or maybe a donkey. The young female doesn’t have much grass look like her grass is upon a hill or a cliff. i see a man bottom right corner in a white top looks like maybe he is fishing or getting ready for a swim, maybe the boat belongs to him and he is dropping anchor. i see another man look like he is hiking up the hill while herding sheep but it doesn’t look like the sheep are fence is so maybe is an island where the sheep run free in open area but the man is herding with a wooden walking stick and a huge brown backpack maybe the young lady on the hill is maybe his wife or sister, because it doesn’t look like many people life upon what look like an island. the island is surrounded by water and it look a little deserted. it look like the weather is end of spring beginning of spring because the lady is getting her grass situated and the leaves on the trees look like they are just growing back. The many rocks that are located in the calm quiet water look very dangerous considering the fact there is a wooden sail boat in the calm quiet water. Couple of the rocks in the water kind of form a cave of some sorts maybe the home of an underwater creature. I see this is an old painting, because there is no technology people are herding sheep and the boat are wooden and still have sails similar to the Chris Columbus days with the Nina the pinta the Santa Maria. The people were not what we call wealthy. They look like the type that struggled to just get by, because I see old and worn out clothes the object used to plowing looks like it was home made. The area where the young lady is plowing doesn’t look like it would even reach the limit of an acre. This painting was drawn way back in the day, you can’t walk down the street and see this kind of this any more. You would have to go into the middle of no where to see people plowing their grass or herding sheep. The sail boats are only seen in museums now you can’t see them no where else.

The famous painter Pieter Bruegel and the author William Carlos Williams had very similar if not the same exact insights on the story of Icarus. The two just expressed them in different ways. One through painting, the other throughpoem. The similarities were no one paid any attention, the farmer ploughing stood out in both the painting and the story, The painting seems as if it also spring, and they both describe Icarus drowning. In “the story of Daedalus and Icarus” the author, Ovid described everything to the last detail. None of the other sources told us why Icarus was flying or why he was on the Island. This story states both. Icarus was on the island with his father Daedalus, who “hated Crete and his long exile there.” This quote is information that none of the other sources provided (the readers). Another example of hidden information that Ovid reveals to us is “Daedalus in envy hurled the boy head long from the high temples of Minerva.” This quote tells us Daedalus killed his nephew. Which was probably why he was exiled. W. C. Williams uses irony to entertain or make his audience think and shows that humans have no control over anything in life. In the quote “when Icarus fell it was spring”, it contains irony, because Spring is supposed to be the season of new life and to have somebody die in the spring is ironic. The author also uses personification frequently throughout the poem. For example “the edge of the sea concerned with itself.” This quote is personification because the sea doesn’t have feelings nor concerns. Another way the author used personification is when he wrote “sweating in the sun that melted the wings wax.” This quote shows personification, because wax doesn’t melt. The author uses text in the poem that show no one or nothing care about Icarus. For example, “a farmer ploughing his field the whole pageantry.” This quote show people were down their own thing while hearing “a splash quite unnoticed it was Icarus drowning.”